McKeever makes cross-country Olympic history

Brian McKeever was named to Canada's cross-country ski team for the Vancouver Olympics.

Photograph by: Archive
, Calgary Herald

CALGARY — Get this crystal clear: Brian McKeever did not qualify for the Olympic Games because he’s legally blind.

He did not make history as the first winter-sport athlete to qualify for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the same year because only 10 per cent of his vision remains, all of it peripheral.

He did it because he can ski faster at long distances than just about everybody on the planet, and he’ll get a chance to show that as a member of the 11-athlete Canadian cross-country Olympic team, which was unveiled on Friday afternoon at the Canmore Nordic Centre.

“Now it’s about preparing to honour this selection,” said the 29-year-old Calgarian, a double gold-medallist at the 2006 Paralympics in Turin. “I don’t want to just show up and be making up the numbers. I actually want to be feeling like I’m part of the race and contributing to what’s going on out there. I didn’t want to achieve this position just because I happen to be pretty fast and blind. It was more about earning the spot, and that showed in the selection race.”

McKeever booked his historic ticket to Vancouver, and a likely position in the Olympic 50-kilometre race, by winning a Noram series 50-K last month in Canmore, Alta.

That put him in the same room on Friday with fellow Olympians Chandra Crawford and Sara Renner of Canmore (who won gold and silver respectively at the Turin Olympics), Dasha Gaiazova of Banff, Perianne Jones of Almonte, Ont., Madeleine Williams of Edmonton, Devon Kershaw of Sudbury, Ont., Ivan Babikov of Canmore, George Grey of Rossland, B.C., Stefan Kuhn of Canmore and Alex Harvey of St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que.

“I am so inspired by Brian McKeever,” said Crawford. “It’s unbelievable. I raced with him through the fall, and I know he was struggling to get his form back, but he held strong to his dream and didn’t give in to doubt and he made it happen. I feel like I’ve had a lot of things to get through to get here, it’s been hard to make the team, it’s been hard to perform to the ability I have, but with Brian around, I maintain a high level of inspiration. It’s so amazing.”

McKeever will be a part of a team that includes an established women’s contingent, led by Renner and Crawford, and a rapidly rising men’s squad anchored by multi-event threat Kershaw.

And it’s a team that could grow later this month, if other countries decide not to fill their available quota of athletes.

“We had our Trials, and we had 15 people who should be nominated, and we’ll know on the 28th whether there’ll be an increase in the quota,” said Tom Holland, Cross Country Canada’s high performance director. “And I’m very hopeful. It’s our Games and I think 11 is a little small, so I’m remaining optimistic that we’ll get a little bump up.”

That would open the door for two skiers on the bubble — Red Deer, Alta’s Drew Goldsack and Canmore’s Gord Jewett.

Still, it’s the McKeever announcement that will put the national team in the forefront heading into Vancouver, and that’s fine with Canadian Olympic Committee director Gene Edworthy, a Calgary optometrist who knows the challenges McKeever and his dad, Bill, both face with Stargardt’s disease.

“It’s amazing on a lot of levels,” said Edworthy, whose children were taught by Bill McKeever. “I think it’s a great thing for the Olympic movement. For one thing, it ties together the Paralympics and Olympics. Like Brian said, we’re all overcoming obstacles; it’s just some of them are more noticeable than others. And from an Olympic standpoint, it goes to show that we can all overcome those obstacles.”

Once McKeever’s done with the Olympics, his focus will shift to his five Paralympic events that he’ll ski with his brother Robin as his guide.

“The Paralympics should not be seen as a sideshow to the Olympics and Vanoc has done an amazing job of marketing the Olympics and Paralympics as one Games, and that’s the first time it’s been done,” said McKeever. “Hopefully that has an impact. When Olympic fever dies down, hopefully Paralympic fever will start and people will come out and watch.

“I don’t necessarily like a lot of attention, but I do like the fact that cross-country skiing is getting attention, and I think that’s really important for our sport, no matter how we get it, whether it’s with medals or whether it’s with an oddity like me coming around.”

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